The more you work with Selections, the more you'll come to realize that you…can't trust the marching ants.…It becomes very difficult to tell what is and isn't selected when you're only…looking at that dotted, dashed line.…Sure it's moving, and it gives you a pretty good idea of what's happening.…But it's not that easy to really tell what's selected, and what's not selected.…In this case, I like to jump into Quick Mask mode, so I can both see my…selection, and refine it using the Paintbrush.…Here's how it works.…

Let's make an initial selection with the Quick Selection tool.…Let's just drag through and select these yellow military hardware here.…Now you see that worked pretty well, but I'm not sure exactly how things are…happening in this little crease.…If I press the Q key, it will select to the Quick Mask mode, and shows me what's…selected and not selected.…I can now zoom in, Ctrl+Plus or Command+ Plus, and move around my image, and I see…very clearly that I've missed this area.…

Well, with the Paintbrush selected, B for brush, I can just paint, and black is…

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Released

3/12/2012

Practical Photoshop CS5 Selections reveals the importance of making precise selections, whether for masking or making color and tone adjustments, and how to make them with the tools in Adobe Photoshop. Author Rich Harrington shows how to make a basic selection with the Select menu commands and the Marquee, Lasso, and Magic Wand tools, and then refine it with Expand and Contract, Smooth and Feather, Quick Masks, and other controls. The course also covers advanced techniques such as selecting with Color Range and working with channels. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:

Creating masks from selections

Moving a selection

Selecting with the Quick Selection tool

Transforming a selection

Using the Refine Edge command

Selecting a color or tonal range throughout the image

Making a selection with the Pen tool

Saving a selection as an alpha channel

Creating a selection from multiple channels with the Calculations command